Yesterday's failed coup attempt in Venezuela significantly hurt the Trump administration's international standing. It delegitimized its Venezuelan clients Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López. After recognizing that their original 'regime change' plan failed (again) the White House starts to beat the war drums.

The Trump administration, which has backed Mr. Guaidó since he first challenged Mr. Maduro’s authority more than three months ago, clearly thought the day would unfold differently.

There is no official explanation why the Trump administration believed that the comical coup attempt by Juan Guaidó and his master Leopolo López would work.

There are signs though that the government of President Nicolas Maduro set a trap. Several people in the top echelon of the Venezuelan government gave false promises that they would join the U.S. proxy side. They snookered Guaidó into launching his coup to let him fail.

A Washington Postwrap-up says that everyone expected important people to change sides:

The chaos in Caracas indicated that, while a plan had been in motion, it may not have unfolded as anticipated. ...Announcements by senior Maduro officials that they were changing sides did not materialize, and the administration appeared increasingly concerned as it debated next steps. ...Earlier Tuesday, Bolton had told reporters that Trump is watching political developments in Venezuela “minute by minute.” Bolton also put unusual public pressure on individual Venezuela government officials to renounce Maduro and embrace the political opposition. ...“It’s a very delicate moment,” Bolton said. “The president wants to see a peaceful transfer of power,” which he added would be possible if enough military and government figures switch allegiances. ...In an apparent attempt to divide Maduro’s government, Bolton said senior officials, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, had been in secret talks with Guaidó, and he called on them to “make good on their commitments” to help oust Maduro. ...Bolton called by name for three officials in Venezuela — the defense minister, the chief judge of the Supreme Court, and the commander of the presidential guard — to support Guaidó taking power. ...A senior Latin American official said opposition talks had been going on with Padrino and the other two for “the last several weeks,” and that the three had been promised retention in their current positions if they came out publicly in support of “constitutional order” that would allow Guaidó to take power. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the fast-moving and confusing situation, said those involved in the negotiations had no initial explanation for what went wrong, ... ...Elliott Abrams, the administration’s special envoy for Venezuela, told reporters Tuesday that the United States had expected Padrino, along with the head of the Maduro-appointed Supreme Court and the head of the national guard, to declare their support for the Venezuelan constitution, if not necessarily for Guaidó himself. ...He said that opposition figures had held discussions with the three influential officials in Maduro’s government ahead of those planned demonstrations. ...Carlos Vecchio, Guaidó’s ambassador to the United States, also said Monday that the opposition leadership had had “conversations with part of the inner circle of Maduro” and that “they know that Maduro is not going anywhere. That Maduro is the past . . . and that’s why they want to look for a different future for Venezuela.”

Everyone in Washington believed that significant figures in the Venezuelan government would change sides. They did not do so. Vladimir Padrino rejected the coup within an hour after Guaidó announced it. It seems that the Guaidó side got played by the Venezuelan Defense Minister and several other officials and officers. They seem to have promised to support Guaidó only to bait him into taking steps that would embarrass him.

A McClatchy piece headlined "What went wrong?" seems to confirm this interpretation:

Shortly after Guaidó gave his predawn speech at the Carlota Air Force Base in Caracas, rumors spread that Armed Forces Chief of Staff Jose Ornelias and powerful commander Jesús Suárez Chourio were behind the military uprising. But just as quickly both men joined a growing list of officials swearing loyalty to Maduro....That military officials who owe their careers and livelihood to Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela didn’t abandon him shouldn’t have come as a surprise, said a former U.S. diplomat in Washington, who would only talk on background.

He said he’d known about Guaidós plans to call for an uprising for at least 10 days.

“If I knew it, then everyone knew it,” he said. “The [Maduro] regime saw it coming and was prepared. The regime probably even knew that people in the government were talking to the opposition and probably even approved of it.”

The total failure of the coup is obvious when one looks at what happened to Leopoldo López, the mentor of Juan Guaidó. He was under house arrest for leading the violent demonstrations and deadly riots in 2014. Yesterday morning the guards let him go. While the circumstances are not clear, the police chief responsible for the guards has been fired. López promised his followers that he would go to the Miraflores Presidential Palace. But he wasn't even able to leave eastern Caracas. Yesterday evening López, with his wife and daughter, fled into the Chilean embassy. They seem to have disliked the accommodations. Two hours later they moved into the Spanish embassy. While the embassy food may be good, it will be a quite different life than in their own comfortable mansion. A few of the soldiers who supported Guaidó took refuge in the Brazilian embassy. Guaidó is still free.

McClatchy also looked at the consequences of the failing coup:

" .. Guaidó’s move is also a highly precarious bet,” [Risa Grais-Targow, an analyst with the Eurasia Group,] wrote. “If Maduro can successfully put down the rebellion, it will be a strong signal that he still enjoys a high degree of military support, which in turn will probably deflate the opposition.” ...Guaidó took a risk announcing the military support, [Venezuela security expert Brian Fonseca, a former Marine and U.S. Southern Command intelligence analyst who now serves as the director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University] said, and if the Army does not back him, it could be crippling. “If today’s movement falls flat — what does that mean for credibility of the Guaidó movement?”

Guaidó and his backers in the Trump administration were made to believe that some significant elements of the Maduro government and of the army would turn on Maduro. They launched a coup attempt that fell apart within a few hours as no one changed sides. All their blustering has now been deflated. Guaidó has lost his credibility. Washington may still support him but in Caracas there is likely no one left who believes in him.

Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams and of course Donald Trump have been exposed as buffoons who, despite their powerful positions, can not even organize a simple coup. They publicly supported through dozens of tweets and interviews what turned out be a bad amateur theater play. The diplomatic corps will joke about this episode for the next decade.

The Empire only appears to be strong. In reality it is weak, confused, clueless and, most importantly, run by a sad gang of incompetent thugs who think that they can scare everybody into submission in spite of not having won a single significant war since 1945. The inability to break the will of the people of Venezuela is only the latest symptom of this mind-boggling weakness.

When it became obvious that the coup attempt failed, the White House started to blame others. It claimed that Russia dissuaded Maduro from fleeing the country. It said that Cuba, which has 20,000 doctors but no soldiers in Venezuela, controlled the Venezuelan military and prevented its uprising. It is now starting to beat the war drums.

Washington is open for “military action” in dealing with Venezuela’s crisis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced. Softening his war-mongering rhetoric, he said that a peaceful option is still more preferable.

“If the question is, is the United States prepared to consider military action if that’s what it takes to restore the democracy there in Venezuela, the [US] president’s been consistent and unambiguous about that, that the option to use military force is available if that’s what is ultimately called for,” Pompeo said in an interview on Fox News.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday evening issued an order prohibiting U.S. air operators from flying below 26,000 feet in Venezuela’s airspace until further notice, citing “increasing political instability and tensions”.

The FAA notice said any air operators currently in Venezuela, which would include private jets, should depart within 48 hours. ...American Airlines Group Inc in March said it was indefinitely suspending its flights to Venezuela, as the country continued to struggle with political turmoil and unrest.

Spanish airline Air Europa says Wednesday’s Caracas flights have been canceled. Flights over the next 10 days also might also be affected because of the “latest developments” in Venezuela.

The Caracas-based travel agency Molina Viajes says flights to and from Miami on Wednesday have been suspended.

Estelar airline says its Wednesday flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Caracas has been cancelled. However, it says flights to and from Peru and Chile are operating.

Such FAA orders are only given for countries where an active air war is going on and where air-defense weapons are expected to be fired. For now no one believes that the U.S. will launch cruise missiles or make bombing runs on Venezuela. It would be in no way justified.

Then again - what might it do should a 'massacre' happen in Venezuela. If hundreds of Guaidó supporters get mowed down by machine gun wielding troops in a false flag operation, the U.S. would surely accuse the Maduro government. With the U.S. media and the Democratic Party fully aligned with the White House regime change strategy there would be little resistance to the use of force. A 'humanitarian' bombing run against Venezuelan government targets, primarily its air defenses, might then be considered to be the right response.

Here is another ominous sign (Spanish, machine translated) that something is up:

The acting Secretary of Defense of the USA, Patrick Shanahan, canceled a trip to Europe that was due to begin this Wednesday, May 1, in order to "coordinate more efficiently" with other branches of the Government, both the situation in Venezuela and the Army's mission in the border with Mexico.

"Secretary Shanahan will no longer travel to Europe, as he has decided that staying in Washington DC will allow him to coordinate more efficiently with the White House National Security Council (NSC) and the State Department the situation in Venezuela.", the Pentagon said in a statement. ...During his tour of Europe, Shanahan had planned to travel to Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Another sign that something is up is a phone call (Russian, machine translated) today between the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergej Lavrov and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:

On May 1, on the American initiative, a telephone conversation took place between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, M. Pompeo.

The focus was on the situation in Venezuela, where on the eve of the opposition, with the clear support of the United States, attempted to seize power. It was stressed on the Russian side that Washington’s interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, the threat against its leadership is a gross violation of international law. It is indicated that the continuation of aggressive steps is fraught with the most serious consequences. Only the Venezuelan people have the right to determine their destiny, for which the dialogue of all political forces in the country is demanded, for which its Government has long called for. A destructive external influence, especially a forceful one, has nothing to do with the democratic process.

The generals in the Pentagon will not like the rhetorical build-up at all. They will look at their maps and find that Venezuela is twice the size of Iraq and 30% larger than Afghanistan. It has impenetrable jungles, mountains and slums that even Venezuelan troops do not dare to enter. It has a functioning army and halfway decent air defenses which were recently upgraded by Russian specialists.

It is unlikely that Trump wants to launch a war on Venezuela. He likely knows that it would not be a cake walk, and that it would be a severe risk for his reelection. But who knows what Bolton or Pompeo might tell him to get their way. They just got snookered by the Maduro government. Why would they not snooker Trump?

"You can tell by looking at their faces on photos taken that early morning "

The photo of Guido shown at the top of the article shows him looking like a deer caught in the headlights. this guy, eyes wide with--what?---fear? cluelessness? surprise?---this guy is supposed to take over the governmetn of Venezuela? Wearing his little jacket like a skateboarder or basketball player?

anyone seeing that photo will LOL at the idea of this boy-child being a statesman or leader of any kind other than maybe of a Boy Scout troupe or a skateboard team.

this is just setback the human spirit cannot be withered.did the folks in the jewish ghetto give up no we are at the 1939 moment again.
the children of caracas must be saved isreal,uk,norway,dublin,canada and aussie and usa usa must give mad dog madura an ultimatom leave now free your people.
mad dog must take his russian hezbollah and irnaia special forces terror squads with him to moscow or irania guido should be given a nobells prize for peace and the oil industry opened up to genie energy tel aviv and some such other specialists in shell,bp etc what not

Yes, Pompeo and Bolton are fools. I live in the country they are fools for and apologize for them but we are bullied internally as well.

@ William Gruff who ended with
"
Now, demented psychos who have been made a fool of by their intended victims might respond with insane violence. Let's see if the doddering and senile late-stage Evil Empire has enough viagra to get its grotesquely over-sized military to stand at attention for an afternoon of ultraviolence.
"
Well written Sir!

I feel at times our textual white noise in the maelstrom of the intertubes are but wisps of well intentioned angst. But we are creatures of language and some logic and reason. If ever we could manage the innate anxiety of our lives, which is not knowing literally anything about our place in the universe, it would be much easier for logic and reason to overrule the myth makers that provide all those weak seekers, "the answer".

I am sorry. In my country this is what bullies do. Yes, it seems to not makes sense and is very offensive. Welcome to the idiocy of the West.

Not being a bully it is difficult to construct the tone of voice and construction of derisive phrase thatt hose types are good at using.....like lawyers.......a hairsbreath from thieves.
It is also interspersed with personal "connection" BS

Please stand up to these war criminals and thank you

They get away with much of what they do by building a power base around "faith" deception and use that emotional hook to overwhelm logic and reason

I doubt any of us had Pompeo's or Lavrov's phone bugged, so the best we can do is guess at the content of the conversation. Judging by the characters and the mental states of the individuals involved, though, I would guess that Pompeo called Lavrov to make incoherently shouted threats. Lavrov likely just muted the phone and sipped his tea waiting for the annoying shrieks to stop. When Pompeii-o was done erupting impotently venting, Lavrov likely patiently and politely suggested to Mr. Lying-and-Cheating-and-Stealing that he tuck his limp "100,000 tons of diplomacy" back in his trousers and stop embarrassing himself.

Re: 103-106, how to imagine the conversation of the two top diplomat in the world. One may guess that both sides would use translators, good practice even if both sides know their respective languages, as it makes for more smooth and deliberate conversation. Pompeo notes that one locution of Lavrov was untranslated, so afterwards he queries the translator. P: what did Lavrov say when you did not translate? T: he clearly said it to himself, so at that time it was not proper to translate. P: but what was the meaning, I recall him saying something like "debi bla". T: Sir, it was "debili, blya" the second is simply a sign of exasperation, like "shi.." in English. P: What about "debili"? T: it means "idiots" or "cretins".

To Arioch: Upon review, my post above about the Pompeo-Lavrov call is just a rehash of what psychohistorian already posted on the previous page. The important point is that Pompeo's call almost certainly lacked any content beyond threats. It was just a rabid dog barking at what it misperceives as the source of its anguish, much like Trump's tirade at Cuba yesterday.

To quote Walter @97 above: "To be fair, these guys in DC are hallucinating. I mean this, they are frankly unable to see reality."

This cannot be overstated. When someone says something like this there is a tendency for others to dismiss it as hyperbole or invective, but in this case it is cold, hard fact. The consequence of this is that the specific content of Pompeo's call is irrelevant, as that content has nothing to do with the real world. The only thing that matters is the threats that we know Pompeo made, and we know Pompeo made threats because that is in his character. We also know that Lavrov saw through Pompeo's delusionary version of reality because Lavrov is not invested in it at all. We therefore know that Lavrov patiently and respectfully attempted to redirect Pompeo to reality ("You are talking about violating international law and about war crimes. You should rethink that.") because it is in Lavrov's character.

I do not see how we could get any closer to what transpired unless the Russians leak a recording or transcript of the call.

A FIELD GUIDE OF FAKE NEWS
UnNews: An Index Of Unreliable News Websites
Misinformation is a thriving industry on the internet, supported by social media shares, advertising dollars and political donations. So the International Fact-Checking Network built a more complete dataset: UnNews, an index of unreliable news sites.

Moon of Alabama made their list and is flagged as having "bias"

Under "Methodology" it defines the flag bias as:

bias: OpenSources: "Extreme Bias: Sources that come from a particular point of view and may rely on propaganda, decontextualized information, and opinions distorted as facts."

Our index compiles existing site lists, curated by academic and journalists. For now, we depend on their expertise for accuracy.

So, OpenSources is one of their "existing site lists" from which they learned that Moon of Alabama is flagged - bias.

Fun fact: they provide a link to OpenSources but it is currently broken! If you click on it a page comes up that says:
"There's nothing here yet/ Build something amazing"

Another fun fact about the list that Moon of Alabama finds itself on:

We curated the resulting list, trimming it a bit, by removing several sites whose stories, though highly politicized, were mostly not fake: alternet.org, cato.org, heritage.org, nationalreview.com, thedailybeast.com, theintercept.com, thinkprogress.org, and weeklystandard.com. We determined this by checking the veracity of their stories at PolitiFact and Snopes.

One of the sites that was excluded from their list is one that I *knew* well (spent a lot of time there but won't go there any longer)
theintercept.com

Fun fact: one of the major funders is the owner of theintercept.com

Fun fact: Charles Koch Foundation is a major funder

Fun fact: MacArthur Foundation is a major funder

It must be a work in progress, but you may find it useful.
I surmise that if Moon of Alabama is on the list then perhaps some other useful sites can be found
on the list, places I have never been before.

Yes, it is every bit as pathetic as you suggest, but that club is real, and America's paranoid terror that mysterious forces are lurking in the world's shadows and plotting against them is also very real. After all, America's "brilliant" plans are all breaking one after the other. How could something like that be happening to a nation that sees itself as comic book superheroes? Such superheroes' plans might appear to fail, but only as part of the plan. On the other hand, people like Pompeo know there is no other plan than the one that just failed. The Dunning-Kruger effect prevents Pompeo and Bolton and Abrams and Trump from even considering the possibility that their plan was flawed so they assume it must have been the Cubans or the Russians or the Chinese who somehow used subtle cunning to wreck their beautiful plan.

These are not smart people.
These are not rational people.
These are dangerously delusional fools.

Regardless of the political posturing by both the Evil Empire and Russia in yet another in an ongoing series of stupid Trump Admin-induced manufactured political crises, at the end of the day Lavrov and Pompeo bat for the same team.

Team Authoritarian Global Capitalism. Owned and managed by and for the .01%

Far from placing the world on the brink of WWIII this crisis too will soon blow over only to be replaced by the next episode of "The Apprentice - White House Edition."

I suspect you can imagine why Pompeo called Lavrov AND what his message was. The clue is in Lavrov's reported response in b's translation.

There's no doubt in my mind that Pompeo started the conversation with (short version, expletives omitted)...
"Keep your tentacles out of Venezuela and mind your own business!"

We know that The Swamp thinks Venezuelans (and everyone else in the world) are morons. Therefore Pompeo's call was to let Lavrov know that he knows Maduro couldn't have pulled off the anti-coup coup without Russia's help.

> from even considering the possibility that their plan was flawed so they assume it must have been the Cubans or the Russians or the Chinese

I really can not imagine this level of ignorance and immaturity - or should i say DoubleThink? - on the very top of US State

At this point i would easier believe in some Divine Intervention, "them who gods want to perish are stripepd of their reason" kind.
Or - call me Trump (or rather Team Trump) apologist - to some broad plan without a single failure yet moving America to more and more international isolation, all this while manifesting rampant idiocy as a plausible deniability device to conceal the existing of that plan.

Look, would they literally roll dices an flip coins, they would have to win sometimes, at mere chance. Instead US establishment displays a never-erring negative brilliance.

So, okay. Russia et alii are plotting to steal America's rightful position of world's sole hegemon, i got it.
America proudly picks the challenge and makes a "beautiful plan" to subvert Russian plots and to reverse the tides. Sounds reasonable.
Now, evil Russia plots a counter-counter-plan and subverts the American's plan. Well, what else would you expect from the enemy? You picked up a fight, and allegedly you were serious about it?
That is what this game is: you plot to subvert enemies' plans and equally they plot to subvert your plans.
Which means - subvertion is expected and mundane thing.
Which means - if one's plan got subverted - that proves it was NOT beautiful.
To say "subverted beautiful plan" is as adult as saying "dry water".
And, at the very tops of the top of USA? It just can not be! Incomprehensible however you look at it.

Oh, i said "equally". Moral-e-quivallence, sure.
But, even if one is adept of moral in-equivalence, that was not a granted Law of Nature, that is something that adpet has to work hard to enforce, and do it against expected subverting plots from moral equivalence adepts! You enforce that law and then you enjoy it and reap fruits, etc. But before the law is enforced it is not a law yet.

Now, about Amrican comic books, all those Batmen and Captain Americas. Granted - i am little versed in that lore. But...

Well, then Pompeo has to act like a superman. Were supermen, even of last Hollywood breeds, known for helpess incompetent menacing rants?

"92. If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.) "

"This goes hand in hand with Evil Plan, where it's practically required to give the hero and viewer exposition of just what the heck is happening. Expect the villain to let out an Evil Laugh and start to Trash Talk about how the hero(es) are powerless to stop his Evil Plan. It can greatly surprise them when the hero interrupts with Get It Over With.

Heroes tend to not gloat, which is why villains facing a Sword over Head will usually either be allowed to live or killed without (much) fanfare: compare After Action, Villain Analysis. Instead, heroes expect the villain to do this, so there may be a Have You Come to Gloat? moment."

Firefox had a gimmick they call Reader View which magnifies and reformats the dominant text on a page into a narrow column. Cutely, the symbol for it is next to the refresh button and looks like a tiny open book.

For those obsessing over the call between Pompeo and Lavrov, typically we can expect Maria Zakharova to present a more consumable and expanded version of this at her next briefing.

However, b already presented the substance in his article (machine translation, b's emphasis):

The focus was on the situation in Venezuela, where on the eve of the opposition, with the clear support of the United States, attempted to seize power. It was stressed on the Russian side that Washington’s interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, the threat against its leadership is a gross violation of international law. It is indicated that the continuation of aggressive steps is fraught with the most serious consequences. Only the Venezuelan people have the right to determine their destiny, for which the dialogue of all political forces in the country is demanded, for which its Government has long called for. A destructive external influence, especially a forceful one, has nothing to do with the democratic process.

I don't see the point to fret over this. Interesting that Pompeo called Lavrov. If that's the case, then already the game was lost. But Lavrov clearly told Pompeo: "you're already far across the lines of international law. The UN Security Council and world opinion will condemn you, and if you go even further, into military actions, then expect military responses from sovereign Venezuela (aided perhaps by its allies and friends) - with international law on its side."

The US is spitting out its humiliated words of aggression. Words mean little. Actions, however will be met with cold realities on the ground (and in the air).

The United States of America have always been a fascist military dictatorship with shopping privileges for the masses.

The only people who have not figured that out are the Americans. Looking at what mental feces the MSM spreads, it is now apparent that the bi-partisan Fascists in Warshington are doubling down on their brutal fascist spree of conquering the future most important resources of countries on Earth.

The only reason why the American people have not acted out against the fascism of their ongoing regime, lies within the fact that they are so deluded by now - having been told from the beginning that they are superior to any other country and/or people on Earth. They practically exterminated the original owners of the North American continent, whereas it must be pointed out that Indians did not engage in the psychotic commerce of the fascists from Europe. They never saw a necessity in private property.

At this point, the US is simply continuing its wars and destruction - the killing of the Buffaloes. Now the Buffaloes are a metaphor for economic sanctions dished out liberally - while the only countries on Earth truly deserving of economic sanctions and should be blockaded are the US and Izrahell. Having them removed from the map of the Earth would be very helpful and this does only apply to the fascist regimes in these two rogue states.

There is a a hope though, that the criminally insane psychopaths building the backbone of American fascism will be brought to justice, their assets forfeited and locked away in a mental ward, where they belong. It is unbearable that psychopaths like Bolton et al are given the space to spread their vile insanity, but on second thought - what goes around comes around.

The emperor not only wears no clothes. He is a filthy stinker that needs to make room for true evolution of Homo Sapiens - towards a leader/psychopath free future in which the wellbeing of the Planet equals the wellbeing of its Life and vice versa.

This situation in Venezuela is the meeting of the once-hegemon with the now-multipolar world. It's like two tectonic plates meeting, and you don't want to be standing on the grinding edges. But the multipolar world is handling things really well, and astonishingly, the energy level that makes up the force of executive action seems to be draining from the US as we watch.

I'm not sure anyone could have predicted this rapid a decline. Let's remember that the Russian Foreign Ministry has its own supercomputer. No telling what Shoigu has. But we know that the diplomats and the soldiers of Russia walk a closely entwined path, like the two arms of a fighter, and with one mind.

Yes, there is definitely the feel of Russian advice in Venezuela, as many have commented. At every turn, the signature has been to let the aggressive force wear itself out while watching alertly, being ready at all times to block, parry, disarm, and only if necessary subdue. One is reminded of Russian Systema [8-minute YouTube clip, lots of fun].

~~

I also think more is going on. In the widest possible context, both Russia and China understand clearly that their victories in the war waged against them come from the passage of time. If they can remain unscathed, and build their new infrastructures, eventually the threat will die from its own waning. Every smaller action seems to be well conditioned by this overarching strategy.

What we are actually witnessing, I think, is the unseen hand of the Tao, whereby every motion made by the US that meets with no resistance and no target to land on, expends vast energy of the US. This would be difficult to show in, say, engineering terms, but martial artists would understand it clearly.

From the old samurai movie, The Hidden Blade: "The body retreats, but the mind does not. The mind is always attacking." Muhammaed Ali did the same thing with Foreman - he let him exhaust himself through anger and ineffective punches. Then, when the time was right, a strong and determined Ali took Foreman down in an incredibly short time.

Something like this is at work, and it offers us the chance to consider the true nature - and energy - of reality as shown by various masters of various disciplines.

Yeah, obsession, perhaps.
Or just that last straw.
You may be cynical and ruthless and greedy and power-lusting and all.
But you just have to have the instinct where you deliberately turn yourself into world's laughing stock! A lolcow, as anonymouses word it.

It is said to be a virtue and bravery to laught at powers that be. All those minstrels in taverns, poets and vagabonds.

But what to do if the said power humiliates itself so thoroughly and on so every occasion that there literally remains not a single spared thing to make joke about?

B. and others have documented that Trump got snookered into bombing Syria (at least one unproven chemical attack) and into diplomatic warfare with Russia over the Skripal affair (fake dead ducks and poisoned children). He is distracted with the fake Russiagate. Show him some pictures of suffering babies and he will say yeah to bombing Caracas. The question is whether the Pentagon bigwigs have the guts to silence Bolton and Abrams before losing the next one is put on them.

“Firefox had a gimmick they call Reader View which magnifies and reformats the dominant text on a page into a narrow column. Cutely, the symbol for it is next to the refresh button and looks like a tiny open book.”

Firefox still has it, but now it looks like a tiny page with text on it.

After clicking on it, when the newly formatted (and cleaned up) text comes up, then clicking “Ctrl +” will enlarge the text, and will continue to do so each time you click.

Arioch @121 said: "I really can not imagine this level of ignorance and immaturity - or should i say DoubleThink? - on the very top of US State"

Few people who are not stupid can believe it. That's the irony in the Dunning-Kruger effect.

A key here to the rest of your observation hinges on a point that I have not yet really discussed, which is raised by your inclusion of the quality of "immaturity" as part of the problem. It is no secret that Americans' emotional maturity has been increasingly lagging behind their chronological ages for many decades now. This divergence of emotional development from physical development has gone on for generations at this point and we are not just talking about people retaining early teen emotional development into their early twenties or something like that. We are talking about a majority of the American population not achieving adult-level emotional development at all, at any point in their lives. This emotional stunting is even more pronounced the higher a person's socio-economic background is, which is why second+ generation oligarchs have infant-like personalities.

Marx would be shocked by the extent of this late-stage capitalist development, but he would immediately understand it. People who are forced to work cooperatively in an industrial environment will quickly develop emotional maturity since cooperative labor demands it. People who skip that and go straight to managerial positions, or isolated cubicle work, will fail to mature. America, which has been largely de-industrialized, and in which adult infantalism has become a protected and respected trait, has come to be dominated by people frozen at maturity levels between six and ten years old. Such individuals have little difficulty imagining themselves to be Hollywood characters like Batman or Deadpool or Jack Sparrow (or even cartoon animals like pandas or unicorns!) even when their behavior remains that of a small child.

Combine the general trend towards infantalism in the West with the increasing tendency for people in executive positions in government and business to be drawn from higher socio-economic backgrounds that result in more intensified infantalism and the behavior of people at the very top like Bolton & Co should come as no surprise. They are not acting like ignorant and petulant children in some complex multidimensional chess move that us simple folks cannot comprehend. They really are just ignorant and petulant children with advance chronological ages.

P: but what was the meaning, I recall him saying something like "debi bla". T: Sir, it was "debili, blya" the second is simply a sign of exasperation, like "shi.." in English. P: What about "debili"? T: it means "idiots" or "cretins".
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 2, 2019 8:52:09 AM | 108

On May 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo had a telephone conversation at the initiative of the US side.

The conversation was focused on developments in Venezuela, where the opposition recently attempted to seize power with overt assistance from the United States. Russia’s position that Washington's interference in the sovereign state's internal affairs and threats directed against its leadership constitute a blatant violation of the international law was underscored. It was noted that further aggressive steps may lead to the gravest of consequences. Only the Venezuelan people who have the right to choose their destiny, which requires dialogue between all the country's political forces, as its Government has long called for. Destructive external influence, particularly when force is involved, has no place in the democratic process.

During the conversation, humanitarian aspects of the situation in Syria were also discussed, in particular conditions at the Rukban and Al-Hawl refugee camps. Mr Lavrov spoke in support of the prompt return of refugees to their places of permanent residence, for which the Syrian Government has created proper conditions.

Mr Lavrov and Mr Pompeo also touched on bilateral issues, including the schedule of upcoming Russian-US contacts

#120
I use Firefox. I don't have any trouble reading this site or accessing links.
I am very low tech, so if there were a problem I would not be able to solve it. Fortunately, I don't have any problem. If the screen or text were too small I would just hit control + to enlarge the screen.

Advanced seventh graders are being fed US-centric propaganda, ie: Maduro is dictator. Protestors are amassed in opposition to Maduro, and etc.

Sickening to poison the minds of children, but that's what they do. They did it to all of us and it takes years to come to terms with all "the crap I learned in high school. It's a wonder I can think at all."

I feel sorry for the children.

And to think that a plurality of their parents are likewise brainwashed.

And both political Parties (War Parties) are gung ho for the "freedom coup".

The good news is that it was stymied.

But, even as the bastards should be ashamed, embarrassed and ridiculed... There is no sign that this is the case.

WH release: Russia attacks our Democracy while we deliver it to others (billions and billions served)

Wow, talk about lack of self-awareness. We are crying in our coffee over Facebook posts while threatening govt officials in another country with criminal prosecution if they don't support a coup. For the love of God, how can they not hear themselves, okay they cannot hear but how can the MSM go along with it are they complete and total zombies? [rhetorical]

I've shown why there's zero rationale for an armed assault on Venezuela in previous threads and see no need to repeat myself other than to say such a move would result in a bullet-to-the-head-like result for the Outlaw US Empire and its ambitions for reclaiming Latin America.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 2, 2019 1:16:02 AM | 88

I agree. Therefore Trump will send in the planes to destroy the air defences, with the missile ships and aircraft carriers behind them. The planes will be shot down by Russian-made air defences. The air defences will not get destroyed. major ships will be sunk with anti-ship missiles, while other ships and aircraft will be immobilised and made impotent with Russian electronic warefare. The world will see how effective Russian military hardware is, and how worthless US hardware is. Demand for US-made weapons - the primary object of the US economy and political system - will collapse and orders will be cancelled, while demand for Russian-made weapons accelerates. Countries on the fringes of empire will be emboldened to rebel and to join the multipolar world. The EU will read the writing on the wall and will castigate the US for starting a war of aggression. The credibility of the US will irreversably crippled. And so the unavoidable decline of the hegemon will be hastened.

In my opinion, the main reason for the call was setting up the May 6 Helsinki meeting between Pompeo and Lavrov (which we only learned about today). And the main reason for that meeting is, most likely, preparing for an upcoming Trump-Putin meeting.

Posted by: BM | May 2, 2019 12:21:04 PM | 140
(The world will see how effective Russian military hardware is, and how worthless US hardware is.)

One suspects Russia will defer direct confrontation with the Judeo-Christians for as long as, and by any means, possible.
If AmeriKKKa starts making noises about an unprovoked military assault on Veneuela, Russian (and Chinese et al) diplomacy might be able to encourage the Yankees to count the number of offshore US military bases and outposts there are in the world BEFORE Venezuela is attacked. And then count them again AFTER Venezuela is attacked.
There are hundreds.

As to why Pompeo would have called Lavrov, I think (under threats) the Russians were informed that this coup was really going to go down in "full force", and that the Russian forces better stand down, and that the Russians better advise Maduro to stand down, or better yet, flee to Cuba.

> People who are forced to work cooperatively in an industrial environment will quickly develop emotional maturity since cooperative labor demands it.

It is not about industry alone. Peasantry. Sailors. Military (where they are allowed lexibility, not rigid executing of seniors' dictats). Pirates (combining both later), etc.

Granted, pioneers were those who run away from colelctive efforts. But even them knew collectivism was a lesser evil when facing problems too large for one person to deal with.

Recently though it seems to move from rational to irrational realm. Quasi-religious.

"Collectivism" is a tabooed word in USA, and it is very funny to see how USA tries to "sneak collectivism past radar" by naming it differently. "Responsible xxx" or "team building", etc. All while heralding extreme individualism and aynrandism as principle virtue and road to success. Split personality. How can it be efficient?

USA is feral anti-communism, but it adores Israel founded by kibutzes. So funny.

This recent dive into "offence culture" is just next ladder of the ages old process.
Just now rationality became heresy and is tabooed too.
Ideological drones being shoulder-patted by drone-masters, and they love it.

Militantly inflating one's rights without a grain of consideration to nether others' rights not to any system, that would have to maintain both sets of rights in some practical way. It is like those rights are some free by-product of invisible hans waving magic wands. Infantilism? it is something worse.

Find any forum focused on their hly rights, and tell them that rights are priviliges created by societies, strong and rich enough to grant those luxuries to their members - what a firery sh*tstorm ensues.

Show them Libya and Somali - and they would immediately retort those are not truly free lands because they were overrun by violent tyrannical gangs. O'RLY? And why had it happenned? And why it won't happen in your next all-freedoms paradize?
But, practical considerations are heresy and denied with religious zeal....

> more intensified infantalism and the behavior of people at the very top like Bolton & Co should come as no surprise.

No, they as individuals are not surprise. Surprise is how they - they all - are getting to the tops without both
1) being outcompeted by adults, who allegedly have better grasp of reality,
2) being struck out by The System, which should have a preservation instinct if nothing else

> They are not acting like ignorant and petulant children in some complex multidimensional chess move that us simple folks cannot comprehend.

But then Trump's government should had wins time and again, by sheer chance.

If you come to casino and bet erratically on red and black - while you would be systemicalyl loosing, there would be some small wins too, not all losses.

> They really are just ignorant and petulant children with advance chronological ages.

Maybe. That jsut shifts the question to some vehicle, that ensures those useful children are getting green-light street to the top positions, and in those positions they are unfalibly advised to do worst things possible.

Chomsky once told to some UK(?) journo, who passionately declared he believes in every word he writes. He said: of course you do. And that blind faith was what secured you this position in major media you enjoy. There were other contenders, with the same talent and energy as you, but they did not believed in MSM owners agenda, so they were filtered out to give you way.

Sure, Pompeo and Trump could be blind babies, but there should be some vehicle, probably sapient, that made sure they would be given free ride to the Oval Room

No, they have speculated that Trump was snookered because they hoped that Trump had been sincere about his intentions.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 2, 2019 11:52:22 AM | 134

I would just point out that there is a difference in hope in sincerity about his intentions and trusting his ineptitude to achieve a still useful effect. Imagine multiple football team players striking the ball at the same time and general direction but the one conducting the ball keeps his shoelaces loose as a norm. I certainly wish that player to be that captain in that adversary team.

Arioch @150 Very true, but in capitalism such occupations as agricultural work, maritime work, and most certainly military work are very much organized in an industrial manner, with division of labor and someone else controlling the capital that the workers use to get their work done. Division of labor often forces teamwork on those who labor and it is in this interaction that emotional maturity develops.

"...rights are priviliges created by societies."

This is a very important point, and it becomes immediately obvious to anyone who tries to exercise their "rights" in the absence of a society. For example, try exercising one's rights on a deserted island and see how that works out. In reality, one can only have rights within the context of a society, and in a just society one's rights end where another person's rights begin. That said, people with the emotional and intellectual development of a six year old might srongley believe that they can appreciate their rights while living alone on an island. Perhaps they believe that mother will sail to their island every day and put food on their table and fresh sheets on their bed.

Actually, living alone on an inhabited islands without predators and with enough water and warmth to, say, pick bananas round the calendar - is a great example of individually excersizing very many tights. Well, maybe without right for instagram followers, and without rights for gay marriage (no hetero marriage rights too). Robinson Cruzoe is a good example of excersizing those rights in true American Pioneer spirit.

That book also shows what happens when other people come to your island. Now you are a one-man society and one-man state that has to battle for your rights in international ways. You are the state, you are the king, but you also are a soldier and a worker. You want your rights? get away from war with any societies, or win those wars. And the fact of your nation consisting of as many as one single you - is no one else's concern. You enjoy full spectre international relation, from full unlimited sovereignty - to full unlimited wars or keeping that sovereingty.

It just does not translate to them, that they live in a (this view is also simplified, but still) 3-tier world, where Mankind is divided into nations/states warring for their ideas of sovereignty and rights, and within those nations/states live us individuals, with our ideas, often supressed by those dumb societies.

So they say, remove those societies. Surething. But that would just simplify the world into 2-tier mode, and now you alone is your own nation and you alone is your own state and now you alone has to pledge all the international wars against other states to win your rights. Good luck.

Good point about violent subcultures, the great historian Arnold Toynbee called these groups “warbands”.

Western proxy warband approach to creating chaos has led to the dramatic increase in warbands worldwide. These war bands persist long after the US and its allies have declared victory. Examples of US backed warbands include:
ISIS, HTS (and a hundred or so other groups in Syria);
MEK and KLA in Albania and Kosovo;
Neo-nazi units in Ukraine;
Mountain tribes in Afghanistan that morphed into the Talaban;
Columbian paramilitary drug gangs;
Al Qaeda in the Magrib supported by France to fight the Tuareg in Mali;
Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq trained by Israel;
Al Qaeda and ISIS in Libya to destroy Libya;
Death squads trained by the US at the School of the Americas to control whole countries in Central and South America (the Angola Variant for the Americas);
Supplying weapons to Mexican drug gangs (Fast and Furious);
Creation of the MS-13 gang in El Salvador (and in the US) in response to the US backed Salvadorian death squads.

The Empire is not weak, this is poor analysis.
[Many countries are suffering from Empire's pressure]

It's called resisting. The countries doing it are not feeling good, for sure. I doubt that Russia was feeling good either when Napoleon invaded, but guess which country won?

You cite Syria, Iran, and Venezuela as the countries that are suffering due presumably to the Empire. Need I point out that in each of these cases the Americans failed completely with their Plan A and were forced to their Plan B or C? If that is not strong evidence of a weakened and less able Empire, I don't know what is.

(Incidentally, you also mentioned Turkey. I have no idea whether they are actually resisting or are merely holding out for a better deal. Perhaps we'll see soon.)

The Fifth Court of the Criminal Judicial District of ​​Caracas has ordered the arrest of Venezuelan opposition activist Leopoldo Lopez for violating his 13-year house arrest sentence while he tried to lead a coup of the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro April 30.

you can sea the humanism in the eyes of guido above such a good looking man just like obamas barry satoro.
the children of caracas shiver tonight because of bully madura and his nazi henchmen.
the jewish communities all over venusaria tonight hope that the knockers at the door will not come we cannot allow another 1939 like what happened in poland and germany czech and co.
guido is the man hero of the hours cometh the man hours come the day and night
the light is darkest before the breaking of the dark dawns already

Thanks very much for bringing Poynter.com to our attention. The list P produced of "fake" and "unreliable" news sites and blogs is indeed invaluable.

When Poynter.com admit that they use PolitiFact (one of their own projects) and Snopes.com to "check" the veracity of the claimed disinformation, you know they can't be taken all that seriously.

BTW their funders also include Open Society (George Soros) and the National Endowment for Democracy (founded during Ronald Reagan's presidency to take over the CIA's role of funding "pro-democracy" and "human rights organisations" in other countries).

The picture is apt. For one thing the picture made me wonder what a latino Obama would look like.
It looks like he's calling Pence or Bolton to say, "where the **** is my revolution? You promised me support!"

USA needs absolutely to enhance the status of the reserve currency, the US petro-dollar which is in mortal danger of cicumvention. so the need to control the overall oil market is a utmost must. more than oil & gold, it's a question of losing the "privileges" of the American Way of Life- living at the expense of the rest of the Humanity. so, the Venezuela thing is an experience of make it or brake it. watershed moment in History.

On Tuesday, April 30, Poynter posted a list of 515 “unreliable” news websites, built from pre-existing databases compiled by journalists, fact-checkers and researchers around the country. Our aim was to provide a useful tool for readers to gauge the legitimacy of the information they were consuming.

Soon after we published, we received complaints from those on the list and readers who objected to the inclusion of certain sites, and the exclusion of others. We began an audit to test the accuracy and veracity of the list, and while we feel that many of the sites did have a track record of publishing unreliable information, our review found weaknesses in the methodology. We detected inconsistencies between the findings of the original databases that were the sources for the list and our own rendering of the final report.

Therefore, we are removing this unreliable sites list until we are able to provide our audience a more consistent and rigorous set of criteria. The list was intended to be a starting place for readers and journalists to learn more about the veracity of websites that purported to offer news; it was not intended to be definitive or all encompassing. We regret that we failed to ensure that the data was rigorous before publication, and apologize for the confusion and agitation caused by its publication. We pledge to continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards.

— Barbara Allen, managing editor, Poynter.org

How about that?!

Guess we'll have to hold our breath for a new improved
fake news list
and hopefully
Moon of Alabama
will be a proud member.
Maybe Wikileaks will be on that list too!

And Canada, that 'great supporter' of human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, has the grand-daughter of a Nazi, making the usual excuses for war and destruction. No one should trust the Liberals or the CONs in Canada. They only listen to their self-serving, 'Nice Guy' lies. Canada can forget about rejoining the Security Council as everyone knows they will support any US outrage, so their voice is redundant.

when are we going to accept the fact that Trump (or the D.C. government) has absolutely NOTHING to gain by control of Venezuela ?? It is Wall Street that has wanted control of the world's oil since 1938 that has led to endless wars!!

Wall Street establishes the foreign policy of the USA. Ref. John Perkins, William Blum, Stephen Kinzer, and a multitude of others.

Your tectonic plates metaphor is apt. What's occurring is the unipolar plate is being subducted by the multipolar plate. Eventually the unipolar plate will melt and combine with the multipolar plate's bedrock to form a new type of magma which will then slowly rise to the surface, erupt and create a new Island Arc belt of volcanoes that represent the new world order formulation. That's how the planet works and recycles!